Pyongyang faces worst electricity shortage in years

Construction drive for ‘strong and prosperous nation’ adds to difficulties in daily life


The year of building a “strong and prosperous nation” has come in North Korea, but its capital is suffering from one of its worst electricity shortages in recent years.

According to the Daily NK, an online publication specializing in North Korea, Pyongyang is being hit by power shortages that are forcing citizens to make haphazard modifications to their apartments or seek other accommodation for the winter.

With apartments built after the 1980s having central heating systems, the power shortage has resulted in heating being cut off from apartments in central Pyongyang, where many high-level officials live.

“When I visited Pyongyang three years ago, heating was provided. The temperature was not high, but it was sufficient to prevent ice forming inside the rooms,” an unnamed source who has recently been to Pyongyang was quoted as saying by the publication. The source also said that he moved to an older apartment that has a coal briquette-powered heating system in eastern Pyongyang and that it was unclear when the hot water supply would resume.

With the situation as it stands, some residents of such “modern” dwellings are said to have resorted to installing coal briquette boilers in their apartments. However, North Korean authorities are said to be clamping down on these modifications, following a series of accidents including exhaust gas poisoning and structural damage to buildings.

While Pyongyang has said it has increased output at coal power stations, such measures appear to have done little to address the problem.

According to the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan’s newsletter, Pyongyang’s power company has more than doubled its output from a year ago.

However, sources here say that Pyongyang experiences frequent power outages during the day due to the delays in building a new power station, and as existing facilities are operating out-dated equipment.

While electricity shortages in the winter have been a recurring issue for North Korea, matters appear to have been amplified by Pyongyang’s drive to make North Korea more prosperous.

Pyongyang has for some time repeated that the process of becoming a “strong and prosperous nation” will be completed in 2012.

The regime’s target may have become slightly more modest after the death of Kim Jong-il. The New Year joint editorial carried by Pyongyang’s three propaganda publications mainly used the term “strong and prosperous nation” in contrast to the previously prevalent “strong and prosperous great nation.”

Whether or not Pyongyang is aiming for a more modest target, the deceased leader’s son and North Korea’s new supreme leader Kim Jong-un is set on forging ahead on the path chosen by his predecessor.

According to a paper by professor Yang Moon-soo of the University of North Korean Studies, North Korea considers most aspects of the “strong and prosperous nation” completed with the exception of the economy.

As such, Kim Jong-un’s North Korea is focusing on projects with visible results, one of which is building 100,000 new homes in Pyongyang.

According to reports, the project has been given priority in power supply, resulting in residential properties receiving power for about three hours each day, and offices being unable to function normally.

While residential and office buildings suffer from power shortages, the construction project is being hurried along with heaters being used at the sites to speed up work on the interior.

In addition, because of the emphasis on the building project, North Korean authorities have focused on bringing in construction materials from China.

Such policies have increased inflationary pressure on food as much of the trade with China, which resumed at normal levels after the end of the mourning period for Kim Jong-il, has been taken up by construction materials.

According to reports, the prices of food items such as rice and pork have doubled compared to before Kim Jong-il’s death.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)